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ABSTRACT
Two wireless technologies, WiMAX based on IEEE standards and LTE standardized by 3GPP, are two competing
technologies, nevertheless, are very technically similar. This competition started with the advent of their pre-4G versions (802.16e for Mobile WiMAX and 3GPP release 8 for LTE) and continued with the advent of their 4G versions
(WiMAX 2.0 based on IEEE 802.16 m and LTE-Advanced standardized by Release 10). It looks that the competition
ended with the advantage of LTE. Plans are set for WiMAX to migrate/integrate with LTE in a multiple heterogeneous
access technology mode. This article addresses the technical similarities and differences that advantage one technology
over the other technology in order to determine which of these factors might have contributed to LTE winning. Nontechnical factors of commercial and historical nature which might also advantage one technology over the other one are
also explored. Finally, current activities in the standardization of both WiMAX and LTE are presented with a perspective on the prospects of both technologies.
Keywords: LTE-Advanced; WiMAX 2; 3GPP Release 10; IEEE 802.16m; WiMAX-Advanced; LTE vs WiMAX
1. Introduction
WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave
Access); is a technology standardized by IEEE. IEEE
issued a series of standards, IEEE 802.16 series of standards, starting 2000, which aimed to provide a metropolitan area data access called Wireless MAN standards. The
first in the series that found real applicability was IEEE
802.16d in 2004 [1]. This standard aimed to provide high
throughput wireless data, last-mile broadband, to fixed
users, which formed a real competitor to DSL and cable
data providers. IEEE 802.16e in 2005 [2] formed the
basis to what is known as Mobile WiMAX, or WiMAX
R1.0. Lately, IEEE 802.16m, standardized in March,
2011, was considered for WiMAX Release 2.0. Release
2.0 offers many folds higher data rates than Release 1.0
and was lately officially recognized as 4G in 2012 [3].
4G technologies shall satisfy the IMT-Advanced of the
ITU [4] aiming at peak data rates in the order of 1 Gbps
for low mobility users and 100 Mbps for high mobility
users on the downlink to support advanced services and
applications [4].
On the other hand, LTE (Long Term Evolution), a
mobile telecommunication technology standardized by
3GPP, is the biggest jump on the evolution path from 3G
UMTS and CDMA2000 towards 4G, with ambitious
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technology. Section 6 discusses the future of both technologies followed by the conclusions in Section 7.
2. Standards Evolution
Figure 1 below shows the evolution paths of LTE and
WiMAX technologies. LTE originated from the growth
path of 1G, 2G, 3G mobile generations of the telecom
companies and their 3GPP and 3GPP2 associations. 1G
is characterized as being analogue with systems standardized by companies like TACS in Europe and AMPS
in North America. 2G systems of GSM and cdma-one
came as digital solution with circuit switched voice capacity as objective. Moderate data rates were enabled
using 2.5G packet switched enhancements like GPRS
and EDGE while voice remained circuit switched. The
IMT-2000 initiative of the ITU put the requirements for
3G systems with video and data as targets. WCDMA was
the adopted system of 3GPP in Europe and many other
parts of the world. CDMA2000 was the 3G system of
North America (NA). Both of these two used a pair of
separate frequency bands to transmit and receive in what
is called Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) mode. A
third 3G system adopted in China called the synchronous
CDMA (SCDMA) uses a single band on Time Division
Duplex (TDD) basis. 3G systems continued as both circuit and packet switched based. They received a number
of enhancements enabling higher data rates such as High
Speed Packet Access (HSPA) enhancement of WCDMA.
The NAs counterpart, CDMA2000, received similar enhancements as well.
The advent of OFDM based all IP LTE in 3GPP release 8 with TDD and FDD modes seemed to incite migration of NAs systems to it targeting a unified telecom
standard. Plans for Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB); a
suggested OFDM system of NAs 3GPP2, were cancelled. Moreover, TD-SCDMA migration is planned toward TDD mode of LTE (TD-LTE). LTE is considered a
3G system but it provides many folds higher rates than
the basic 3G systems. It is therefore called pre-4G or
sometimes 3.9G. Commercially it is considered 4G.
IMT-Advanced initiative by the ITU in 2003 [4] set
the framework and overall objectives of 4G systems and
accelerated the work toward these systems by setting
October 2009 as a deadline date for submitting proposals.
It sets an ambitious high data rate of 1.0 Gbps peak rate
for fixed services and 100 Mbps for mobile services with
mobility up to 500 km/hr. It also sets more requirements
on packet and handover latency and VOIP efficiency.
Additionally, it sets peak and average cell spectral efficiencies and spectral efficiency requirements at cell
edges to ensure high throughputs all over. The advanced
version of LTE, LTE-Advanced based on 3GPP UMTS
Rel 10 in 2011, is an officially recognized 4G technology
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satisfying IMT-Advanced.
On the other hand WiMAX grew out from IEEE standards adopted by data companies with deep roots in wireline technologies (e.g. the Ethernet standards of IEEE
802.3, etc.) and WiFi wireless technologies (IEEE 802.11).
Early attempts to provide metropolitan wireless broad
band were based on fixed wireless access techniques that
require line of sight and rooftop antennas and operated at
high frequencies that can be affected by rain and atmospheric conditions. These attempts had little success. The
first in the series that found real applicability was IEEE
802.16d in 2004 [1]. This standard aimed at providing
high throughput wireless data, last-mile broadband, to
fixed users, which formed a real competitor to DSL and
cable data providers. IEEE 802.16e in 2005 [2] formed
the basis to what is known as Mobile WiMAX, or WiMAX R1.0. WiMAX was officially recognized as 3G
technology in 2007 [6] many years after the recognition
of the initial 3G technologies in 2000. Lately, IEEE
802.16m, standardized in March, 2011, was considered
for WiMAX Release 2.0. The aim of IEEE 802.16m is to
develop an advanced air interface to meet the requirements for IMT-Advanced while being compatible with
previous 802.16 standards. Release 2.0, which is the
other official 4G technology, offers many folds higher
data rates than Release 1.0 satisfying the IMT-Advanced
of the ITU [4].
Both LTE-Advanced and WiMAX 2.0 are not yet
around. LTE-Advanced is expected to be the main one as
most WiMAX operators have put plans to migrate to
LTE. Nevertheless, both camps have plans for the future
of their technology as shown by the rightmost part of
Figure 1 (Beyond 4G/Evolved 4G/Evolved 3G). These
will be discussed later in the paper.
3. Features of LTE/WiMAX
Both WiMAX and LTE are all-IP, all packet technology
with a packet network core. This makes them best for
bursty data traffic with good VoIP support. Both use
OFDMA, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access, a multiple access technology which is a form of
FDM in which the subcarriers are made orthogonal to
each other. This enables compacting more subcarriers in
the spectrum provided giving rise to higher spectral efficiency. The small subcarrier separation results in large
symbol size. This helps mitigating ISI (Inter-Symbol
Interference) and reduces the need for complex adaptive
equalization needed in single carriers wideband systems.
OFDM is robust against frequency selective burst errors
and narrow band interference. In OFDMA, the connection is scheduled in both time and frequency by having
many connections sharing multiple carriers whereas this
sharing can be re-worked periodically to maximize perCN
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formance [7].
Some of the other features associated with LTE and
WiMAX are the following features [8]:
Sub-channelization and permutation: In the allocated spectrum, some subcarriers are used for data
while some others are used as guard bands and pilots.
Data carriers and pilots are randomly allotted to different sub-channels periodically. In other words, the
channels are hopping. This is similar to hopping in
Wifi. However, only one channel is hopping in WiFi,
while in these, all the sub-channels in the spectrum,
say 30, are hopping. This results in interference averaging giving rise to less error corrections and restoring system capacity [9]. Subcarriers are subdivided
into groups and only some of these groups can be
used in any cell. This is called partial usage of subcarriers (PUSC). PUSC reduces neighboring cells interference therefore improving performance. An alternative is the use of fractional frequency re-use
(FFR). In FFR users in the cell close to cell centre use
all the frequencies while those toward the cell boundary use frequencies different to those used toward
boundaries of neighboring cells in order to reduce inter-cell interference.
Both LTE and WiMAX (The mobile version of WiMAX, i.e. WiMAX 1.0, and the later WiMAX 2.0)
use a version of OFDMA called scalable OFDMA
(SOFDMA). In this scheme, whenever the bandwidth
allotted to service provider changes, the number of
subcarriers also changes so as to keep the inter-carrier
spacing fixed. Therefore, the Doppler effect on performance is kept the same for mobile users. WiMAX
16e may use any available spectrum width from 1.25
MHz to 28 MHz while LTE R8 can use 1.25, 2.5, 5,
10, 15, 20 MHz.
Both LTE and WiMAX use AMC (adaptive modulation and coding) for link adaptation. In this scheme,
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4. Technical Differences
As can be deduced from the previous section, there are
lots of technical similarities between the two technologies in architecture and targets. Both uses OFDMA with
flat-IP architecture and both are meant to meet or even
surpass IMT-Advanced requirements with similar enabling technologies. Nevertheless, a number of technical
differences exist. Some of these differences with mobile
WiMAX (WiMAX 1.0) compared to LTE and WiMAX
2.0 compared to LTE-Advanced are the following:
Duplex mode: Both LTE and WiMAX provide for
both TDD and FDD. However, FDD was the focus of all
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telecom companies and continued throughout the different generations. TD-LTE is gaining popularity as migration path of the synchronous CDMA of China 3G. WiMAX, on the other hand, had TDD focus throughout.
Future WiMAX embracing LTE will most likely head to
TD-LTE.
Spectrum: Legacy LTE and LTE advanced use Licensed IMT-2000 Bands at bands like 700, 900, 1800,
2100, and 2600 MHz while legacy WiMAX is Licensed
& unlicensed, at 2.3, 2.5, 3.5 and 5.8 GHz. Thus LTE is
generally available at preferred low frequency band
which gives it coverage advantage. This enhanced its
opportunities to serve as public wide area network. With
WiMAX heading to LTE some operators started trying
LTE in some of the WiMAX bands they already posses.
Intercarrier spacing: LTE uses a standard 15 KHz
intercarrier spacing while WiMAX 2.0 uses 10.94 KHz.
The larger intercarrier spacing the higher the immunity
against Doppler spread. LTE can handle mobility speeds
up to 350 Km/hr while WiMAX can support speeds of
the order of 120 Km/hr with WiMAX 2.0 up to 350
Km/hr.
Access technology: LTE-Advanced access technology for its downlink (OFDMA) is different to its uplink.
In the uplink Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) is used.
SC-FDMA reduces Peak-to-Average-Power-Ratio (PAPR)
by 3 - 5 dB giving rise to uplink improvements that can
be utilized to improve coverage or throughputs of cell
edge users. 802.16m uses SOFDMA for both uplink and
downlink. In fact, the major problem in extending GSM
TDMA and wideband CDMA to broadband systems is
increased receiver complexity with multipath signal reception. The main advantage of OFDM, as is for SCFDMA, is its robustness against multipath signal propagation, which makes it suitable for broadband systems
[15].
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3GGP Track
Architecture
Centric architecture,
gradually moving to flat
architecture
Mobility
Voice versus
Data
Mode of
operation
Access
Technology
Different access
technologies like
TDM/FDM and Spread
Spectrum before heading
to OFDMA in LTE
Spectrum
Target
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7. Conclusions
This paper aimed at comparing LTE with WiMAX wireless technologies. It also discusses the factors that led to
LTE winning as the technology for near future public
networks. The article also foresees future directions of
both technologies and the alternatives that WiMAX technology has.
For theses purposes, the article first reviewed the evolution of the two technologies; LTE coming from the
generations path of wireless mobile phone standards and
WiMAX coming from data networking industry. Mobile
technology path started voice centric and progressed gradually toward data while WiMAX started with broadband data in focus on progress toward serving the voice
users. Salient common features of the two technologies
were also revised. The two technologies, which were
competing with each other, have much in common. Both
are all IP with flat architecture and similar enabling technologies. Technical differences reviewed include spectrum allocation, intercarrier spacing, frames/subframes
and access technology on the uplink. Generally, the impact of each of these on the prospects of the two technologies made that LTE provides more throughputs and
capacity and a better mobility.
Factors that influenced the competition are not only
technological. Other factors influenced the fate of the
competition. The final outcome is that WiMAX people
realized that it is necessary to harmonize and integrate
with LTE rather than continue rivaling it. This formed
the future migration strategy for WiMAX. Alternatively,
WiMAX is progressing toward providing networking
service to serve privately specialized segments like energy utilities, aviation and transportation. The resort of
such segments on private networking of WiMAX enables
avoiding the congestion that may occur in public cellular
networks serving large customer base. Integration of
WiMAX with LTE enables its companies to serve their
specialized segments with private networks while at the
same time offering them the public service. WiMAX
forum is working to complete the standards that will integrate multiple WiMAX and LTE technologies. Lots of
software and hardware changes/additions need to be applied to devices, base stations and core networks to enable them to operate in multimode with a possible need
for backhaul capacity increase. This gives less opportunities for WiMAX to continue as public wide area network.
WiMAXs continuity will largely depend on its success
in vertical markets like aviation, utility and transportation
rather than on reliance on public networking.
3GPP, on the other hand, is actively progressing to
enhance the capabilities of LTE and other current technologies. Two new releases, R12 and R13, are under
preparation. The objectives of these updates are to imCN
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1687-1499-2012-54
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